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Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

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Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262890 by djscruggs » Wed Sep 18, 2019 2:11 pm

djscruggs Gold Member (41 Posts)

I'm a learner.....most of my "indoor woodworking" skills were obtained in shop class about 50 years ago.

I have a Mark V 500. As I'm a newbie, is there a brand, size and type of table saw blade that might be best for me to use for most of my work?

Here's my situation:

Most of my woodworking right now is strictly learner stuff, using pine and plywood, though I'd like to get comfortable enough with my skills to graduate to hardwoods without just ruining good wood prematurely.

I'm not doing ANY ripping or cross cutting in high volume, so a specialty blade doesn't make sense.

I'd like to use a zero tolerance insert to cut down on some of the sawdust....just one of the factors i'm trying to control.

It doesn't necessarilly merit a highly expensive blade in order to "get the best" until my skill level merits that.

Any recommendations?

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262894 by dusty » Wed Sep 18, 2019 4:16 pm

dusty">

dusty Platinum Member (19038 Posts)
Location: Tucson (Wildcat Country), Arizona

Just a humble opinion: I buy a Shopsmith combination blade as a starter. To this day this is what I keep mounted; I change only when doing fine work using hardwoods.

---

"Making Sawdust Safely"
Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262915 by wa2crk » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:22 pm

wa2crk">

wa2crk Platinum Member (2912 Posts)
Location: Leesburg, Fl

I would go for a good quality blade from a well known manufacturer. Lowes and Home Depot carry DeWalt and Marples blades. I would consider these to be of adequate quality for your purpose. I use a DeWalt blade for cutting segments for segmented turning and I get excellent results. Forrest blades are really good but may be just a bit too expensive for you at this time. The Shopsmith blades are real good too but you will have to wait on shipping for them.
Bill V

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262932 by sehast » Thu Sep 19, 2019 12:20 pm

sehast Gold Member (406 Posts)
Location: Milpitas, CA

Very sound advice has already been given. I would only add that whichever brand you choose get a thin kerf blade (3/32" instead of 1/8"). That will make the most of the horsepower available on the Shopsmith.

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262943 by roy_okc » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:23 pm

roy_okc Platinum Member (584 Posts)
Location: Moore, OK

Additionally, if you get a non-Shopsmith blade, you will need a 5/8" arbor for the 500.

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Roy

Mark V/510, Mark V/500 with parts for 510 upgrade, bandsaw, jointer, belt sander, DC3300 w/1 micron bag
Home designed and built CNC router, another CNC router

desktop size
Laser engraver
Way too much other stuff and not enough space :rolleyes:

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262964 by djscruggs » Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:49 am

djscruggs Gold Member (41 Posts)

Sehast...thanks for the suggestion about "thin kerf". I have been surprised at the size of the kerf on my current blade.....it seems to take a lot of wood with it!

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262965 by djscruggs » Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:52 am

djscruggs Gold Member (41 Posts)

Roy_okc....thanks for that callout re: arbor size. is 5/8 " an unusual size for blades? Will that be difficult to find in a big box store. This would be an easy mistake for me to make thinking "one size fits all".

Also, I think I understand that I can get either an 8" or 10" blade for the 500. Is that correct? Any other 500 cautions?

d

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Re: Best general purpose table saw blade for a newbie

#262968 by roy_okc » Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:29 am

roy_okc Platinum Member (584 Posts)
Location: Moore, OK

djscruggs wrote:Roy_okc....thanks for that callout re: arbor size. is 5/8 " an unusual size for blades? Will that be difficult to find in a big box store. This would be an easy mistake for me to make thinking "one size fits all".

Also, I think I understand that I can get either an 8" or 10" blade for the 500. Is that correct? Any other 500 cautions?

d

5/8" is the standard size for blade arbors. The Shopsmith ships with a 1-1/4" hole blade and arbor. This larger size is much less common, although a few blade manufacturers, such as Forest, offer them as an extra-cost option.

If you want to be able to use the typical 5/8" hole blades, you'd need a the 5/8" arbor for the 500. The 510/520/Mark 7 arbors are slightly longer (I think) than the 500. Before buying, you might check to see what you already have, as a lot of owners have purchased them. Here is the link to SS's arbor page: https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cat ... arbors.htm

With a 5/8" arbor, you can indeed use smaller blades, just realize that you lose depth capacity. I've seen some old woodworkers who use as small as 7-1/4" blades on their table saws for reasons ranging from lower blade cost to slower speed at the blade edge to improvement in low HP table saws. You can get 7-1/4" Freud Diablo blades for $10-20 that would suit many needs and are pretty decent.

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Roy

Mark V/510, Mark V/500 with parts for 510 upgrade, bandsaw, jointer, belt sander, DC3300 w/1 micron bag
Home designed and built CNC router, another CNC router

desktop size
Laser engraver
Way too much other stuff and not enough space :rolleyes:

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